So did one of the family's three cats, who lost pieces of her burned ears — but not her purr — since the electrical fire, the 17-year-old Liberati said. Their dog and two cats perished.

Liberati got a call about the fire. She raced to the scene, saw the smoke, the fire trucks and the crowd, and then fell apart.

"I ran down the road, I just fell to the ground, sobbing and said, 'No. No.'" she remembered.

Liberati thought her dream of attending her senior prom at Chenango Valley High School also may have been lost in the flames.

The family didn't have renters' insurance. And Liberati's mother, Lisa Hein, a single mother, had enough worries in the fire's aftermath, including finding a place for the family to live, for Liberati's prom dream to become a priority.

But sometimes, wishes do come true.

Tom Kelleher doesn't see himself as the fairy godfather. But good things can rise from the ashes of a fire.

Liberati will be going to her prom, on the arm of her boyfriend, Aaron Anderson, on Saturday.

She'll be wearing a vibrantly colored gown of her choice — a perfect choice for the dark-eyed, dark-haired girl — given to her by Kelleher from the racks of his Binghamton store, Tom's Coffee Cards & Gifts.

"It has always been my feeling that a girl should wear the dress of her dreams to her prom," Kelleher said. "I don't want recognition. I just want others to pay it forward, to make it happen for others."

Kelleher said he caught wind of Liberati's story from one of his employees, after Liberati and her mother visited the store.

Liberati saw the extensive selection of beaded, spangled chiffon gowns, but the dresses were out of reach for her family.

Then they got the call from Kelleher about the dress.

"We all started crying," Liberati said. "We just didn't have the money for it."

As of last week, Kelleher said he had sold as many as 600 prom gowns to young women with dreams of their own, he said.

He could afford to make another girl's dream come true, the businessman said.

So Liberati is going to the prom in her dream gown — but that isn't the most important thing.

She's learned so much from the fire, she said. One of her biggest lessons: Gratitude.

Many, including kind strangers, have helped her family get through the fire. They've found a place to live in Chenango Bridge. Their possessions are being replaced, she said.

"You can have material things. There's no bringing back the old pictures, everything you had," she said. "But the number of people, who have helped us out — I wouldn't have dreamed it. It has renewed my faith in mankind."